Did Ebola Kill a Hospital’s Reputation?
[by Howard Fencl, APR]
For all the things we do not yet know about the deadly Ebola virus, we do know this: it mercilessly attacked Texas Presbyterian Hospital’s reputation.
No hospital in the United States had yet diagnosed a patient with Ebola when Thomas Duncan showed up sick at the Dallas hospital on Sept. 25. Perhaps they should have been on “high alert” for the disease, but we suspect they were not the only hospital in the U.S. that was not. We now know that, despite presenting classic Ebola symptoms, Duncan was sent home with antibiotics. He wasn’t correctly diagnosed with Ebola until he returned, much sicker, two days later. Texas Health Resources, the hospital’s parent organization, admitted that Duncan’s documentation noted recent travels to Africa, but the information was somehow not clearly communicated to everyone on the medical team.
Texas Presbyterian quickly became the “poster child” for how not to handle the deadly virus. Media from around the world and social media trolls portrayed the hospital as bumbling, inept and unprepared. The outrage ratcheted up to a fever pitch when two nurses on Duncan’s care team were diagnosed with Ebola the week after his death. The revelation that one of the nurses had recently flown to Northeast Ohio was the icing on the cake. A tsunami of fear and speculation raged through social media networks. Cleveland news stations pre-empted daytime TV with breathless breaking news reports. The story led network and cable newscasts the world over with all fingers pointing at Texas Presbyterian. Hospital officials were castigated for media inaccessibility and sending mixed messages.
Hospital revenues plummeted $8 million in October, according to a Texas Health Resources financial report. Emergency room visits dropped 50%. Daily census: down 21%. The reputation Texas Presbyterian worked to build over its 50-year history was in critical condition.
Can an organization recover from such a serious blow to its reputation? It’s very difficult, but not impossible. It takes considerable time, patience and commitment to honest and transparent communication.
First and foremost, when you mess up, admit it. Apologize and talk relentlessly about what your organization is doing to fix what’s broken.
Eleven days after Duncan’s death, Texas Health Resources’ CEO Barclay Berdan finally did just that. He wrote a letter to the community apologizing for the hospital’s mistakes. He outlined new aggressive programs and procedures aimed at improving the hospital’s response. He politely refuted fallacious media reports and stood by the hospital’s adherence to CDC guidelines. The letter appeared in full-page ads in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News, and was front-and-center on the hospital’s web site. The web site also aggregates Ebola-related news releases, offering information about the virus along with links to additional resources. In accompanying web videos, hospital staff members offer heartfelt thanks to the community for standing by them. There’s also a proactive web and social media campaign anchored by Twitter hashtag, #PresbyProud, that beams with the good news of nurse Nina Pham’s recovery and Nurse Amber Vinson’s release from the hospital after both beat the Ebola virus.
Is Texas Presbyterian using crisis counsel to win back its good name? You bet. Will their strategy work? Only time – and the system’s financial disclosures – will tell.